Cost of prosecution will not be released

Taxpayers may never know how much it cost them to prosecute Vice Admiral Mark Norman or even the number of federal employees involved in presenting the government’s case in court.

Norman’s legal battle started in early 2017 and is now bogged down in a pretrial hearing, in which his lawyers have been trying to get federal records they contend are needed to defend the officer against one count of breach of trust.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada noted in an email to Postmedia it will not be releasing what it has spent to date compiling the case against the senior navy officer, nor will it be releasing the final cost after the prosecution is over. The prosecution service said it does not track such cases individually.

The service confirmed it has three lawyers assigned to the Norman case but could not say how many additional staff are working, as it “varies at different stages of prosecution,” according to the email.

The Justice Department declined to provide its cost figure, noting that Postmedia will have to use the Access to Information law if it wants to attempt to obtain what the organization is spending on the Norman case. That process can take from one to seven years, and there is no guarantee the cost figure would ultimately be released.

Department spokeswoman Angela Savard said there are three to five lawyers assigned to the Norman case as well as two paralegals.

Lawyers observing the case have told Postmedia they estimate the cost to taxpayers for the prosecution to be between $10 million and $15 million at this point. As many as 30 federal employees have been involved in the case at varying times, they said.

The RCMP alleges the naval officer leaked information about the Liberal government’s decision to stall a naval supply ship contract to a Quebec firm.

Norman has two main lawyers but his costs are not known. Sources, however, say the significant delays in getting basic documents for his defence is pushing his family into bankruptcy.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by retired Canadian army officer Lee Hammond to help finance Norman’s legal costs.

Hammond had originally set his fundraising goal at $50,000 but has now increased that to $500,000 to cover the rising legal costs.

He said he started the funding initiative because he feels Norman is facing an unfair battle against the unlimited financial and legal capabilities of the federal government. The fund has collected almost $283,000 so far.

Last year, Postmedia reported the Canadian government rejected Norman’s request for financial assistance with his legal bills because it had determined the officer was already guilty of disclosing confidential information.

At the time the group of senior Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces senior officers reached that conclusion, Norman had yet to be charged. The DND panel came to the conclusion even though it did not carry out an internal investigation.

Norman had made the request for financial assistance, available under a special program for public servants facing legal issues arising from the course of their employment with government.